Shitty First Drafts

Practice makes perfect, a common idiom to try to perfect in some particular activity. In this essay, Anne Lamott describes the case of writing horrendous first drafts on an essay or a research paper. She designates how she went through her writing process. Anne tries to explain that ‘shitty first drafts’ needs a great idea to begin with and on to writing the next draft(s). Creating the order of the drafts by making a subpar first drafts can lead to a good second drafts and an excellent third draft, or the final copy. She assumes that writing is not rapturous. The only way to create masterpiece(s) is to start in something small, which in this case, to create ‘shitty’ first drafts. She explains that the first draft is the child’s draft, which is her first 5 pages of mere brainstorming.

In this child’s draft of just visions and impulsive thoughts, she lets it all gush out and let it slope all over the place, thinking that only yourself are going to see it and shape the draft later. After cutting out lines and phrases that she doesn’t need, she would continue on to rewriting a better second draft. She used to write food reviews for a California magazine; from there, the writer learned a lot that food reviewing was not only typing and commenting on the food but it also need a clear structure of explanation. Lastly, Lamott tells readers that this whole rough drafts process is just a persisting cycle, and it will soon happen again. If I use some of these techniques that Lamott mentioned in this paper, then maybe I can begin to have some comfort when writing my first draft and to create wonderful pieces of art that are out of my potential.

No matter how “shitty” the first copy may be, there is no urgency to worry because no one will ever see those “shitty first drafts” anyways. The idea that is profound within this essay is that writing the first ‘shitty’ drafts in every paper are very crucial. The writer explained that you may be capable of getting an idea refreshed up of writing the paper after you finish the first draft and scan it thoroughly to make a better second drafts. Consequently, it can lead to better drafts. This idea is extremely useful and effective that whenever you are enmeshed with writing a paper, this idea will pop-up in your mind so it can comfort you through the tedious process. Additionally, it will lead to a revised draft that is even better. Therefore, by the third draft it is ready to be published and examined gloriously. I usually have trouble about creating an idea; I find that it is very difficult to create a first draft — what to start with and what to end with.

By doing what Anne Lamott has been doing, this creates a better chance for me to create a great paper so that everyone can understand and focus on my topic. The idea of creating an immediate rough draft will help students to brainstorm the big ideas and to organize them into a well-written essay. Anne Lamott explained in her “Shitty First Drafts” article that essentially everyone writes horrible first drafts. Everyone tries to write them instead in order to make better drafts. This essay actually reflected in my writing experience when I tried to make a rough draft for my paper or a review on the internet. I never thought that creating a rough draft was extremely important when it comes to creating an essay. I have realized that it is really hard to make a perfect essay without a rough sketch at first.

In this article, I really enjoyed and felt interested in what Anne Lamott had to say about writing a ‘shitty first draft’ because it made me feel better and comfortable about my writing experience. I assume everyone have never been happy with the first drafts, including me. The first time I take a look at my first draft, I feel that this draft could have improved way beyond than I would have written. But by looking carefully at the first draft, I consider that rough first draft really helps me a lot to think a better draft. For instance, whenever I see restaurant critics around the Internet, some people really write a lot and take their effort to their top to review about that specific restaurant and it’s overall feature. I thought that was a complete long unnecessary review.

In my opinion, this is how some people start to write a good paper. Whenever it comes to a review, all I have done was just gave them a quick score depend on the satisfactory level that I receive and a simple comment about it. But from this point I start doing a rough first draft about writing a review before I even post it so then I can learn how to write a perfect review so people can understand. Even though Lamott’s process of writing and revising seems crazy, I definitely agree with her and say that writing is an exhausting process and sometime it can be frustrating. In her paper she even mentions thoughts of suicide and panic, which is make sense because I feel the same way when writing a paper. Sometimes my brain stops working about brainstorming any ideas.

I feel that rough drafts are extremely necessary. Real writers always have room for their improvement and growth. Therefore, starting a first draft give writers the opportunity to see mistakes and correcting themselves before handing in the very final draft. My first draft will be messy but I think my second draft tend to be well written because I should be able to correct it in the second try. In my opinion, there is always room to growth and learning, and I believe that writing a horrible first draft is the first step on to creating masterpieces.

Works Cited

Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” Language Awareness: Readings for College

Writers. Ed. by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9th ed.

Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005: 93-96.